Girlz Under the Hood

I had a bad hair day today so I knew I had to get back under the hooded dryer. I looked like the before pictures on www.missjessies.com. This was particularly perplexing because I had washed my hair the day before. I used a product I can’t recommend. Oh, how I wanted it to work. The product is supposed to be used for finger-styling. I’ve said before how much I wish I could just rake some curl cream through my hair, let it dry and have a head of perfect coils. I think I’ve got to give that up. No matter what I use, when I finger style, I end up with a head of poufy frizz, wild and uncontrolled. Why that’s bad is a topic for another day.

So I ran to the store and got more Baby Buttercream and picked up Miss Jessie’s cleansing crème de la curl shampoo and crème de la crème conditioner. There are only two retailers in Denver that carry Miss Jessie’s. Akente Express is near my house and the owner is still doing the buy-one-get-one-free deal Miss Jessie’s first offered almost two years ago. It’s a wonderful deal when you look at how much that Buttercreme is.

Don’t tell my hairdresser I was washing my dyed hair two days in a row. But I wanted to get the other stuff out of my hair. This time I did the two-strand twists, with the Buttercream, which was a first for me. And just like yesterday, I sat under the hooded dryer again.

It took almost 90 minutes to dry. My face was flush and reddened. But at least I can keep working under the dryer. Where would I be without it? Now my hair is tamed. I have head of smooth, spirally curls from root to end. Let’s see how long it lasts.

Curly stylist

I love my hair stylist. I feel very fortunate to have found her. Her name is Missy Vaz and she works out of the Mykal Grant salon in northwest Denver. When I met her, she was still styling hair in the basement of her house.  She had finished cosmetology school and gotten her license and was looking for a salon.  I found her the way you’re supposed to find one _ by asking other women whose hair I admired who did it.

 

         I had Missy’s biz card for about a year before I called her. She had colored a friend’s kinky-curly hair. My grays were coming in pretty rapidly and the home dye I was doing was making my hair look dark and dull.

 

         Missy has naturally curly hair _ 3B and she is supportive of women trying to stay natural, but with highlights. For the big Passover Seder banquet this past weekend, I had Missy cornroll the front of my hair and leave the rest curly. She twisted my hair and I sat under a dryer for only 20 minutes and then she took the twists out. I didn’t totally love it, although my son was very complimentary. My husband said nothing so I know he didn’t like it. But I liked the idea that I can leave Missy’s chair with my hair just as curly and kinky as when I came in, while all around women are getting their hair blown straight.